69 MPG ; Hypermiling Cross Country

A trio of hypermilers are working together to set the Guinness record for fuel efficiency.Guinness has records for everything.

They are only hours away from finishing a cross-country trip at an average of 69 miles per gallon in their 2009 Honda Civic hybrid. They began in Oregon on Nov. 22, drove north and east through the Pacific Northwest, then hugged the Great Lakes as they made their way to Vermont, cut down the Eastern seaboard, and then headed west. They are in Arizona now and will finish up in California tonight.

You can track their progress and find tips on hypermiling. Chen told me they do a lot of coasting on downhills, obey the speed limit on highways, avoid red lights (stopping and starting kills fuel efficiency). And even though it looks like they’ll easily break the previous hypermiling record, the trip has not been a gimme: They’ve faced stiff headwinds and rain, reducing efficiency.

Man vs Mileage

Creative Loafing

With the click of his seatbelt, it's time to begin his 52-mile commute to the plant in North Carolina. Seamlessly, he swiftly turns the key in the ignition, cuts on his headlights, presses the clutch and gives the gas pedal a measured and deliberate amount of pressure. Then, he shifts back to neutral and kills the engine. At the end of his gravel driveway, he veers left onto the winding, hilly, two-lane country road and coasts for about half a mile. When his speed gets down to just above a crawl, he turns the key in the ignition, accelerates up to 45 miles per hour before shifting to neutral and repeats the process. During the 10 miles it takes to get to I-26, he'll likely cut his car off five or six times.

"I've had folks say 'the Martians are coming,'" Turner chuckles. "People take pictures of my car on cell phones everywhere I drive." He's even been stopped by curious cops a few times but never ticketed. (After all, it's not a crime to look crazy.) Turner is unfazed by the attention. What he is fazed by, however, is his mileage efficiency and the gas he saves. Because, no matter what people think or say, his hyped-up hooptie averages more than 70 miles per gallon -- and that's not a figure that can be ignored.

Going under the screen name of "basjoos" on CleanMPG.com, a site that lets drivers track daily mileage and share information, Turner is just one of a growing legion of people who identify themselves as hypermilers. They make up a community of drivers committed to taking the edge off of rapidly rising fuel costs through a combination of practical design and driving-style modifications, and in some cases, controversial techniques. These drivers come from all walks of life, aspire to different hypermiling goals and have varying motivations.

Leerberg's miles per gallon increased 40 percent immediately. When he calculated it, he realized that if he just held himself to these basic techniques, he could save $600-$700 per year. Not exactly chump change, and anybody could do it. But a 40-percent savings wasn't enough. He wanted more.

"It's the numbers. I love crunching numbers," explains Leerberg. "That's what's fun about it. It's trying to get your numbers up. I was just getting 25, which is 100-percent EPA for a long time. Now, I'm up to, like, 160-percent EPA because I've been getting, like, 42 or 43 mpg."

"If someone is blocking the lane -- what we call the 'left lane bandit' -- and you're tailgating a person that just won't move over, well you have to move over to the right, pass them and then move over to the left again," says James, whose Web site is www.drdriving.com. "A lot of drivers do this maneuver emotionally so that they floor the gas pedal when they pass on the right and then often look at the driver as they go by and give them what we call a 'stink eye,' showing their disapproval," he continues. "It's kind of a retaliation. And so as they execute this, they accelerate much faster than is necessary to pass, creating perhaps an unsafe situation.

Extreme Measures to Increase Gas Mileage Not Recommended

Tahoe Daily

The high price of gasoline is prompting some drivers to turn to dangerous driving techniques to try to improve their gas mileage, according to AAA Nevada.

The practices, known as "hypermiling," include turning off a vehicle's engine or coasting in neutral, tailgating or drafting larger vehicles, and rolling through stop signs, the motor club said.

"Although trying to conserve fuel is a positive goal, 'hypermiling' is a dangerous way to try to achieve that objective," Michael Geeser, spokesman for AAA Nevada, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, some drivers use extreme and sometimes illegal techniques that put themselves, their families and other drivers in danger."

California Highway Patrol officers also are discouraging hypermiling techniques - especially turning off a car's engine while it is moving. Doing so cuts off the vehicle's power steering and brakes, officers noted.

"That's just stupidity. You have no control over your vehicle," said CHP spokeswoman Tammy DuTemple.

Officer Steve Skeen, spokesman for the CHP's Truckee office, said he didn't have any firsthand knowledge of drivers using hypermiling techniques. But an officer will regard hazardous driving the same way whether the driver is doing it to save gas or not.

"If we see someone tailgating or drafting a big rig, they're going to get a ticket for following too close," Skeen said.

AAA Nevada offers the following tips for improving gas mileage safely:

-- Check tire pressure at least once a month and inflate tires to the standards listed in the owner's manual. Fuel efficiency is reduced by up to 2 percent for every pound of pressure tires are underinflated. But the hypermiling practice of overinflating tires is not recommended, because it makes tires more susceptible to damage and causes poor handling.

-- Accelerate and brake smoothly.

-- Use cruise control to maintain a steady speed.

Hypermiling Guide

Valley Hypermilers Squeeze Every Last Drop

Fresno Bee

If you look like that, don't let them take your photo for a newspaper. Ok ? He looks more like he is going to hitch a ride on a train.

"f you spot a patchwork red, yellow and blue 1989 Geo Metro in town, it's likely John Scianna. The fitness instructor and self-described "gearhead" practices several types of hypermiling and is the one who gets more than 50 mpg driving city streets.

He said he spends about $50 a month on gasoline, driving 400 to 500 miles.

Scianna's Metro has no passenger seat and no back seat. He removed them. Originally he did it so he could fit a motorcycle in the car on a return trip from Los Angeles. He later discovered he got better gas mileage without the seats because of the reduced weight. The passenger seat alone weighs 40 pounds, he said.

Scianna also never fills his tank past half-full.

Five gallons adds unnecessary weight, he said."

Hypermiling Tips From 106mpg.com

106mpg.com

Hypermiling Tips from 106mpg.com

Slow Acceleration

If you have a real-time MPG readout on your car you can see for yourself. Quick accelerations up to a target speed actually burn more gas than moderate acceleration. This will vary from car to car depending on how the engine is timed and tuned.

Low RPM

The most efficient speed is (usually) running at high gear in the lowest RPM. To find this sweet-spot, accelerate slowly and feel for the last shift your transmission makes.

Slow Down

Most vehicles are traveling much faster than they need to, or are legally allowed to. At highway speeds most of the gas burned is simply used to fight wind resistance. Driving below the speed limit on the highway can reduce your fuel use by 30% alone.


Drive like you'd ride a bike

When a cyclist sees a light go red at the end of the next block they immediately stop peddling. They see no need to peddle hard to a red light only to slam on the brakes. Many of the people I coach will keep their foot on the gas until they get within 10 yards of the light, then they brake hard.

Dan Bryant
NW Houston
Cypress, TX
106mpg@gmail.com

More Tips...

Hypermiling Toyota Prius

Market Watch

"In an 844-mile tour of Texas, a hypermiling expert driving a hybrid Toyota Prius was able to average 68.5 miles per gallon of gas, 49 percent more than the EPA estimate of 46 mpg for the car. On just one tank of gas, the driver was also able to get markedly better gas mileage and use much less gas than a driver in a Prius on the same route, using normal driving habits."

"Bryant got 68.5 miles per gallon on the trip, while Garfield averaged 40.4 mpg. Driving the 844 miles on the trip, Bryant used only 12.3 gallons of gas, while Garfield used 20.9 gallons. At $4 per gallon, Bryant's hypermiling techniques cost $49.20 and saved $34.40 over Garfield's gas cost of $83.60."

Hypermiling

Fox News

The core of the hypermiler's philosophy is to use both the gas pedal and the brakes as little as possible.

Since every time you hit the gas, you're using fuel, and every time you brake, you're basically throwing that fuel away, the less either comes into play, the more gas you save.

"It sounds paradoxical because the accelerator and the brake are the two main features of your car," Cardona said. "But not speeding up to those red lights and not taking off like a jackrabbit at a green light can really add up at the gas pump."

So when hypermilers see a red light ahead, they'll take their foot off the gas and coast toward it. And they constantly scan far ahead for possible impediments so they don't waste gas getting to them, just to have to brake when they get close.

Hypermilers also pride themselves on driving at or below the speed limit, since the faster you drive, the more gasoline it takes to maintain momentum and get back up to speed every time you slow down. And wind resistance becomes a bigger problem the faster you go.

Some of their habits — such as driving around 50 to 55 mph on the highway and drifting up to red lights at a crawl — have earned hypermilers a few enemies on the road.

Gerdes is used to the abuse.

"If there are five or six cars behind me coming into a red light and I can save all six of those from speeding to it, I have no problem taking a finger or a horn for that action," he said. "I'm going to save everybody fuel and make them safer."

Gerdes also recommends filling tires to the maximum safe pressure listed on them by their manufacturer, and using the lowest weight oil appropriate to a certain vehicle.

And all hypermilers rave about using fuel consumption display devices. While these gauges come with hybrid vehicles, similar gadgets (a ScanGauge, for example) can be installed on most other cars and allow a driver to see instantaneous changes in miles per gallon.

"This is the single most important step that the average driver can take," Santos said. "When they press the gas pedal they will see instantaneously what fuel they're requiring at the time. That little device pays for itself in no time. It's like weight loss. If you don’t have a scale and are involved in a diet program, you really don’t have the means of gauging your progress."